From bouncing sunlight off a mirror to bouncing radio waves off the moon, the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Museum houses a collection of impressively rare and arguably war-winning technologies, many of which scientists developed in our backyard.
An early radio wave locator is on display in the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Museum at Fort Monmouth. Located on Fort Monmouth, the window for locals to explore firsthand the developments of the Signal Corps Research Labs is quickly closing.
As the fort prepares for closure, curator Mindy Rosewitz said the majority of the collection would be integrated into a research and development exhibit in the museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., the post’s new home.
This move marks another chapter in the museum’s history, which began humbly in the 1920s.
“It was just an open space with tables,” Rosewitz said of the original Fort Monmouth display room, which housed a few pieces of early communications equipment.
A diorama shows the transmitter used to bounce radio signals off the moon in “Project Diana.” This success is considered one of Fort Monmouth’s greatest achievements. PHOTOS BY ANDREW DAVISON Bell Labs had donated the collection of items gathered from all over the world for research to Fort Monmouth.
These items included a 1913 telephone made of wood and leather, a rare dual telegraph key and a heliograph, one of the earliest and simplest communication devices.
Soldiers used the heliograph, a small, swiveling mirror, to send messages by reflecting sunlight, Rosewitz said.
The museum’s collection allows visitors to followthe development of important technologies.
A new metal-encased model of the wood and leather telephone can be seen a few display cases away. The metal added durability, but also weight.
However, the Army considered large communications arrays, 100 pounds of wires and metal, to be man-portable.
A display on vacuum tubes, of which, Rosewitz said, the museum has over 10,000 in storage, yields to the slight transistor.
The transistor accomplished the same task as the vacuum tube, but at a fraction of the size, weight and fragility. Transistors allowed radio devices to shrink exponentially.
This reduction is clearly displayed in the helmet radio, which Rosewitz said was made possible by transistors. What was once one soldier’s lone burden could now be carried within the brim of a hat.
One can then see these terrestrial radios again reincarnated as portable satellite terminals, allowing for even wider-reaching communication.
Several of the museum’s artifacts, Rosewitz said, are one-of-a-kind prototypes hand-built by Fort Monmouth scientists. The Zahl tube is one such piece.
Developed by physicist Harold Zahl at the Signal Corps Laboratories at Fort Monmouth in 1939, the Zahl tube allowed for the development of portable radar arrays used extensively during World War II.
The museum also has the original equipment Edwin Armstrong used to invent frequency modulation (FM) radio.
Though Armstrong never worked at Fort Monmouth, he did serve in the Signal Corps, and Rosewitz considers his equipment some of the most valuable pieces in the museum’s collection.
A diorama memorializes the Signal Corps’ success in bouncing radio waves off the moon.
Known as “Project Diana,” for the Roman lunar goddess, this endeavor proved the feasibility of communication through space and is widely regarded as one of Fort Monmouth’s greatest accomplishments.
Also on display is a scale model of the first aircraft radar detection array. Used at Pearl Harbor, this array actually alerted commanders of the incoming Japanese planes. However, the emerging technology’s warnings were ignored.
“They had been expecting supply planes,” Rosewitz said, “or maybe birds.”
The museum also has a radar array in storage exactly like the one used at Pearl Harbor.
However, Rosewitz said the least technological aspects of the museum, the carrier pigeons, fascinate many visitors, especially the younger ones.
The “hero” pigeons, as they are known, are long dead and stuffed, but many come with stories of valor. Carrier pigeon G.I. Joe is highly lauded and his story well known.
After British troops occupied the Italian village of Colvi Vecchia ahead of schedule during World War II, they were unable to cancel by radio the planned bombing.
G.I. Joe flew an estimated 25 miles in 20 minutes to cancel the attack and save the lives of 1,000 British troops.
The Army used pigeons to relay messages until 1957. Rosewitz explained that magnetic fluid behind pigeons’ ears allows them to navigate without landmarks used by many other birds.
A courtyard of sorts, complete with benches and stuffed pigeons, sits in the center of the museum surrounded by portraits of current and former commanders at Fort Monmouth, dubbed the Hall of Commanders.
Rosewitz said that past employees enjoy sitting in the hall and reminiscing about their time under various commanders.
Rosewitz has guided the museum as curator for the past 25 years and drafted all of the display’s informative captions.
She also spearheaded the museum’s renovation in the 1980s that built a façade around the cases.
Because the museum is located on an active military post, prospective visitors must make an appointment.
Appointments to view this unique collection before it permanently moves to Maryland can be made by calling 732-532-1682.